Treatment of textile articles



Oct. 29, 1940. F. scHUsTER TREATMENT OF TEXTILE ARTICLES Filed Sept. 30,1957 Patented Oct. 29, 1940 UNITED sTATEs TREATMENT OF TEXTILE ARTICLESFritz Schuster, Chemnitz, Germany Application September 30, 1937, SerialNo. 166602 In Great Britain October 2, 1936 This invention relates tothe treatment of textile articles, and is more particularly concernedwith that phase or those phases of the treatment of stockings or thelike mounted on metallic or other suitable shaping forms in which thestockings or the like are impregnated with a liquid and subsequentlypassed between rollers. Heretofore (see, for example, BritishPatentsNos. 383,847, 384,870, 385,486 and 451,261) it has been usual to spraythe desired liquid or liquor on to the stockings and' then to pass theforms with the stockings mounted thereon between rollers which`may becovered with a suitable coating, such as sponge rubber or the like.

Now the use of sprays for the purpose of impregnating the stockings orthe like mounted on forms gives rise to ,certain disadvantages, forexample, it is impossible, unless the speed of the conveyor carrying theforms'is sufficiently slow, to ensure that enough liquid or liquor isapplied to the stockings or the like to impregnate the same adequatelyand also the holes in the spray tubes are liable to choke up.Furthermore, unnecessarily expensive and complicated apparatus isrequired in order that the liquid or liquor in question shall be sprayedon to the stockings or the like with sufficient force to ensure theadequate impregnation of the same.

The chief object of the present invention is, therefore, to overcome theabove-mentioned disadvantages and according thereto, instead ofimpregnating the stockings or the like on the forms by spraying theliquid on to the same prior to the forms being passed between therollers, a

stream of the desired liquor or liquid is created down or along the nipof the rollers between i, which the stockings or the like are to bepassed.

Not only is it, mechanically simple and cheaper to create this stream ofliquid or liquor along the nip of the rollers instead of spraying theliquor or liquid on to the stockings or the like prior to their passagebetween the rollers but, in addition, a better impregnation can beobtained as the stockings or the like may be subjected to the action ofa larger amount of liquid or liquor and, furthermore, all chance ofstoppage of the apparatus due to the spray tubes choking up is avoided.

The .above described 'method of subjecting the stockings or the like onthe shaping forms to an impregnation treatment and subsequent squeezingtreatment which spreads the -liquid or liquor evenly and completelythroughout the stockings or the like may be applied to any or all of theindividual stages of .the treatment, such as scouring, rinsing, dy'eing,dulling, softening or stiftening, to which the stocking or the like issubject'ed without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In order. that this invention may be the more clearly understood andreadily carried into efiect, we will proceed to describe the same withreference to the accompanying drawing, which illustrates by way ofexample certain convenient embodiments of this invention, and in which:

Figure 1 is a somewhat diagrammatical side elevation of a part of a hosefinishing machine embodying the present invention, and

Figure 2 is substantially a section on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a central vertical section through a pair of co-operatingrollers in a hose nishing machine illustrating a further embodiment ofthis invention.

Referring now more particularly to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanyingdrawing, I0. represents diagrammatically the under carriage of the hoseiinshing machine and II is the conveyor on which are mounted the shapingforms I2, each adapted to receive a stocking to be treated. I3, I3 are apair of squeezing rollers by means of which the stockings or the likeare to be treated in accordance with the present` invention, theserollers being vertically arranged. Two small pipes I4 from a main supplypipe I5 of the desired liquid whatever it may be are arranged at the topof these rollers and are so positioned relative to the rollers, as shownin the drawing, that a stream of the desiredliquid, be it dyeing,scouring, rinsing, dulling, stiffening or softening, is forced (by thepressure on the liquid) into the nip on that side of the rollers I3which rst encounters the moving shape, there being sufficient ow toensure an excess of liquid resulting ina continuous running stream infront of the nip. Means may, of course, be provided for collecting theexcess liquid and for returning the same to the main tank forre-circulation. Furthermore, an additional supply of liquid may also beprovided to the nip of the rollers, if desired, as shown by the pipes I1illustrated in broken lines in Figure 1.

It has been found that this method of impregnating and subsequentlytreating the stockings or the like mounted on the forms is moreadvantageous, at least from the commercial point of view, than sprayingthe liquid on to the stockings or the like. A more adequate impregnationof the stockings or the like may be easily provided and, furthermore,the apparatus may be mechanically simplied since it is obviously easierto provide adequate means for spraying the corresponding amount ofliquid on to the stockings or the like by means of spraying tubes.

The rollers used in carrying out the present invention may be of anysuitable form. Preferably, however, they are covered with a materialsuch as sponge rubber, soft rubber, felt or the like, which is ofsucient resiliency and softness adequately to press the rounded orbevelled edges of the shaping forms on which the stockings or the likeare mounted. We are of the opinion, as the result of experiments carriedout up to date, that it is preferable to provide the rollers with acoating of sponge rubber, but we do not wish to limit the presentinvention to rollers so covered.

In a further form of the present invention (shown in Figure 3), whichmay be used when the coating of the rollers is of sponge rubber orother' porous material, instead of causing a stream of the desiredliquid to ow down the nip of the rollers from tubes or the like disposedoutside the same, the cylinders 20 of the rollers on which the coatingsof sponge or other porous rubber 2| are mounted are provided withperforations or apertures 22 and the desired liquid is fed, underpressure, to the interior of the rollers through the upper bearings 23.The liquor will then be forced through the pores or the like of thesponge rubber or similar coating to impregnate the bres of the stockingsor the like mounted on the forms.

I have found that the above method of impregnating and subsequentlytreating stockings or the like mounted on shaping forms is particularlyapplicable to the stage in which stockings or the like are subjected tothe action of a dyeing liquor, but it will be clearly understood thatthe present invention is by no means limited to the treatment of thestockings or the like at this particular stage.

Of course, subsequent to the treatment of the stockings or the likeaccording to the present invention, the stockings are subjected to asuitable nishing process which is preferably carried out in accordancewith the prior patents granted to Fritz Schuster.

I claim:

l. The method of impregnatng textile articles with a. liquid whichconsists in causing a moving column of liquid to form along the nip of apair of vertically disposed rollers, mounting a textile article on ashaping form so that the article is exposed at opposite sides of theform and then feeding the form in a path to divide said columnlongitudinally and to enter said nip, whereby the liquid uniformly andsimultaneously impregnates the article from opposite sides.

2. A step in the process of treating hosiery mounted on shaping formswhich consists in passing said hosiery mounted forms edgewise through avertically flowing stream of liquid to divide said streamlongitudinally, whereby the subdivided streams respectvely impregnatethe sides of said hosiery.

FRITZ SCHUSTER.

